Tomorrow Australia votes. The polls have narrowed for reasons unknown and there is now a chance that Howard might just creep over the line. We are indeed at the crossroads!
To my mind, a Howard victory signals the end of this country as a place of the 'Fair-Go', a place that's more egalitarian than not, a place that I grew up in and loved despite its flaws. It will signal that we've become like a junior version of America, a place where right-wing politicians grow ever stronger, where the gap between the rich and the poor widens, where the law of the jungle prevails, where Big Business will increasingly pull the strings, where workers will continue to lose wages and conditions, where citizens will continue to lose their civil rights, where lip-service will be paid to climate change, where the wealthy will continue to receive ever more welfare and tax breaks, where rich private schools will prosper further while public education declines, etc.
Tomorrow, Australian voters of all ages and backgrounds will set the future direction of the country. For too many, voting will be more a matter of acting out of self-interest than in the national interest. Many more will vote out of habit or will cast a vote even though they know little about the important social, political and economic issues that lie ominously just beneath the surface.
I can scarcely breathe!
UPDATE: Saturday -10.pm - THE POLITICAL DARKNESS IN AUSTRALIA HAS COME TO AN END!!!!!!!
THE RIGHT-WING COALITION HAS LOST BIGTIME AND HOWARD MAY LOSE HIS SEAT AS WELL. JUSTICE AT LAST.
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13 comments:
The Aussie elections have been recieving next to no coverage here but the pieces i have been able to find seem to be pointing towards a Rudd victory. Of course Howard is the last of the Iraq warmongers to go before the electorate and for this reason alone i hope to see him removed from office and then handed a date at the International Criminal Court along with the rest of his crew.
For that to happen, Lucy, the world would have to change completely especially the adage that 'Might Is Right!'.
I'm not holding my breath! Cheers.
G'day Daniel,
I think it's time 'enlightened altruism' superseded 'greed is good' (which bloody-well isn't); perhaps (hopefully!) we'll be able to say more, after the votes are counted tonight.
Welcome, Phil. We teeter on a precipice until the results are in. Three more years of Howard with his ethos of greed and imperialism and Australia's soul will be entirely gone! Cheers.
Bye Howard
I sure hope you're right, Renegade! I'll update throughout the counting process.
Some tempers fraying; try this one:
"Journalist slaps candidate"
[SBS]
Looks good and that perhaps people everywhere may finally see that the war-mongers do more harm than good!
Cheers!
Hey Friedham, hey Coffee, there was a new dawn this morning.
I feel elated, full of hope. Democracy can work after all!
G'day Daniel,
it was a solid victory for Labor, and really gives us some hope that the rot can be reversed. I too, felt a great weight coming off me, as we watched the slow count. McKew was an unlikely possibility, I thought, but she might'a pulled it off. Good luck to her, and good riddance to the ... (ellipsis on the grounds that if you can't say something good, better to say nothing.)
G'day, Phil, it's not easy to find something positive to say about Howard. Perhaps the Port Arthur tragedy and limiting gun ownership but there's little else!
Australia is a better place today! Cheers
Morning Daniel :).......
A truly fantastic morning, lang mack!
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